· Happy Black Friday, everyone. It’s not my thing but if it’s yours, well, may your parking spot be close-in, your elbows be sharp and your checkout lines be short. Me, I’ll be home digesting. Do not disturb. Urp.

· By the way, when you’re out shopping, please drop a few bucks in the Salvation Army red kettles. This year more than ever – with welfare assistance cut, unemployment ending for many and a cold winter looming - people need your help. (Disclosure: the lovely yet formidable Marcia is volunteer coordinator for the Genesee County chapter. The campaign badly needs volunteers to ring bells. Call her at 810-232-2196 ext. 227. Their goal: Raise $840,500. Why the extra $500, I have no idea.)

· Question: If tryptophan makes you groggy how come you never see sleeping turkeys?

· Best Thanksgiving line I’ve heard came from Jimmy Kimmel: “In olden times, Thanksgiving was the one day of year that people in the country overate. Now we do it all 365 days.”

· During his Whiting Auditorium appearance Tuesday, Michael Moore read a list of what he called positive ideas that would help Flint. Let’s see which I agree with:

1) No emergency manager for Flint - Disagree. City Hall has bungled the budget for 20 years now, damaging the city and the its employees.

2) Class action suits against the major banks that caused the problems that hurt cities like Flint - Agree in theory. America’s financial industry hurt as all, and I remain astounded that we don’t fight back. You wouldn’t stand for it if someone robbed you at gunpoint, and yet somehow it’s considered OK if they do it from afar with a computer. I don’t get it. We don’t need cities joining a class action suit, we need citizens doing it.

3) Give young people a free home to move to Flint – Agree. But why stop at a home? Give them an entire block.

4) Declare a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures – Agree in theory, although what are you going to do about all the people who would simply stop paying their rent or mortgage?

5) Open a city-owned bank – With what?

6) Restore the Capital Theater – Agree. All we need is a backer. How about it, Michael? You helped fix up the State Theater in downtown Traverse City. How about a little help here?

· Everyone is saying the super committee in Washington failed to accomplish anything. Not true. For instance, they succeeded in living up to our expectations.

· Need Has a Face. This week it looks like Jenese, a single mom with a special needs 2-year-old and a newborn. She need musical and interactive toys, diapers, bottles and infant bedding. To help call Valerie Neely-Walker, Flint Early Head Start, at 810-760-7198. Information provided by Resource Genesee, 810-767-0500.

· “An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day” - Irv Kupcinet.

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